


A Devil for Christmas

by bluenorth



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, First Kiss, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 14:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12914205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluenorth/pseuds/bluenorth
Summary: “Fine, I am getting a tree, Jesus. Are you happy now?” Taylor says.Nico is beaming at him like he literally just saved Christmas.Buying a tree is worth it for that alone.





	A Devil for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Happy December :3 
> 
> This is me writing a rare pair that only I and a handful of my good and enabling twitter friends want to read — you know who you are and this is for you <3
> 
> A massive thank you to Ellie and Maria for their excellent beta work! Also to Maria and Ria for being my cheerleaders always, I wouldn’t even be writing without them sometimes. 
> 
> The title references the host of cheesy Christmas movies we are blessed with at this time of the year :D 
> 
> [This absolutely ignores that they took Rico away from Hallsy because I didn’t want it to be sad. I hate trades.]

“Thanks,” Nico says with a smile when Taylor hands him his second beer. He’s on Taylor’s couch, wedged in between Bratty and Butchy, and Taylor gives each of them a bottle, too.

Taylor isn’t really sure how he ended up serving beer to three rookies, two of them not even old enough to drink, but it’s definitely Henny’s fault. He was throwing around words like _team building_ and _leadership_ and invited they guys over to Taylor’s place without even asking him first.

“What about me?” Henny asks when Taylor sits down with his own beer and takes a sip.

“You’re driving them home,” Taylor says, grinning, and gestures towards the couch.

“We can take an Uber,” Bratty says, because he never wants to be a bother to anyone. Taylor really wasn’t this considerate when he was 19. Most of the time, he still isn’t.

Henny looks at him expectantly, but Taylor just shrugs. “I’m not getting up again, you know where the fridge is.”

“Why do I like you?” Henny grumbles, but he does get up and disappears into the direction of the kitchen.

“Cause I’m pretty!” Taylor calls after him, and it makes Nico laugh adorably — nose scrunched up, eyes nearly closed and dimples showing. Taylor enjoys making Nico laugh, but he’s not allowed to think about the reasons ever, so he doesn’t.

“You’re not that pretty,” Butchy says. Taylor raises an eyebrow at him, because that’s a stupid thing to say. If it’s the hill Butchy wants to die on though, Taylor will gladly let him.

“Okay, you have seen these lips, right?” Taylor points at his own mouth, because he’s all too aware people like it. His mouth and his ass are his best features, but the rest is a treat, too.

“He’s right,” Bratty says, while Nico is staring at Taylor’s lips, a little bit. He only looks away when Taylor taps his index finger against his lower lip.

Taylor decides to forget about it immediately.

“Whatever,” Butchy says, entirely unbothered. He looks around the living room. “How come you don’t have any Christmas stuff out, Pretty Boy?” Butchy asks, and Taylor knows he was exactly as chirpy when he was a rookie, but he’s not so sure he appreciates it now.

“He lost all of it in the divorce,” Henny says, walking back towards them with two bottles of beer that he places on the coffee table in front of his seat. Taylor rolls his eyes at him.

“What divorce? You were married?” Bratty asks, and he looks so confused, it’d be funny if Taylor didn’t resent where the conversation is going so much.

“He wasn’t married,” Nico says, but he does look at Taylor with a frown, like he’s not actually so sure about that anymore.

“He means that when I moved here, I left all that stuff behind with Ebs,” Taylor explains, because he doesn’t need to discuss how laughable the idea of him marrying anyone is.

He’s seen a picture on Instagram of Jordan decorating their tree, which is now Jordan’s and Lauren’s tree, and he was absolutely fine with it. He doesn’t need it, his apartment looks great without it and all the other kitschy stuff he and Jordan thought they needed back then.

“And he’s also a grinch, so he never replaced it,” Henny chirps and Taylor flips him off. Sometimes, Henny’s really lucky that they go way back.

“Why don’t you just get some new stuff?” Nico asks, like he’s genuinely interested in the answer.

“Not everyone wants their place to look like a winter wonderland,” Taylor says, with a pointed look at Henny, who turned his front yard into a bright, blinky atrocity last year.

“Why do you hate Christmas?” Henny asks, accusingly, and Taylor groans.

“I do not hate Christmas. You guys realize it’s not about the decorations and trees and gifts?”

Butchy snorts at that and Bratty says, “Yeah, right,” and Taylor figure that’s fair because it’s not like he goes to church or anything.

“It’s about family for me,” Nico says quietly. It’s not a revolutionary concept, but Taylor still wants to hug him, even though Nico’s family is spending Christmas with him in New York.

“See, Nico gets it,” Taylor says, satisfied, because who is gonna disagree with what Nico said?

“But presents and the tree are important, too,” Nico adds after a beat. He grins at Taylor, who feels slightly betrayed and like he should have known Nico was setting him up.

“Yes, Hisch knows the true meaning of Christmas, you’re right,” Henny says with a satisfied grin and Taylor knows when he’s fighting a losing battle, so he gives in.

“ _Fine_ , I am getting a tree, Jesus. Are you happy now?”

Henny lifts his bottle up and tilts it towards him, Butchy starts clapping with Bratty joining in, and Nico — Nico is beaming at Taylor like he literally just saved Christmas.

Buying a tree is worth it for that alone.

 

#

 

A few days later, Nico shows up at Taylor’s place with minimal notice, and a big shopping bag hanging from his shoulder. He’s wearing a beanie and half of his face is hidden by the big scarf he’s wrapped up in. The fabric looks super soft and complements the color of Nico’s eyes.

Instead of focusing on that, Taylor asks, “What’s happening here?” He already regrets saying he wasn’t busy today when Nico texted earlier, but he does step aside to let Nico in.

“I got you some Christmas decorations,” Nico says and passes Taylor the bag. He kicks off his shoes and hangs up his coat, along with the scarf and hat. His hair’s a mess underneath.

Taylor only glances at the contents of the bag. He sees a lot of red, green and gold, and glitter, before he puts it down and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I distinctly remember saying I’d get a tree, not any of this,” he says. Nico was right there, he shouldn’t need to be reminded of this.

“Oh, we’re getting a tree this afternoon, of course,” Nico says. He leans down and gets the bag before he moves through to the living room.

“Of course,” Taylor echoes quietly, shaking his head. He feels defenseless in the face of Nico’s determination, and that’s a problem he doesn’t know how to handle at all.

He could try and fight this, but when he gets to the living room, he sees Nico placing three wooden pieces on the sideboard underneath the TV. They’re painted bright red and spell out ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’.

Nico turns to him with a bright, hopeful smile and Taylor doesn’t have the heart to take a stand against any of it.

“I’ve got absolute veto powers on anything that comes out of this bag,” Taylor says, because he draws the line at angel figurines and blinking Christmas lights.

“Okay!” Nico says, so excited, and proceeds to spread everything he’s bought (Taylor doesn’t want to know how much money he spent, but it was probably too much) out on the couch. There are candles and lights for the tree, Christmas balls, garlands and tinsel.

“Veto!” Taylor says and points at a snow globe that’s the size of a small melon and features a wintery skyline of New York City.

“That’s for my mom,” Nico says, one eyebrow raised as if he’s daring Taylor to criticize his mom’s taste. Taylor just shrugs.

“You want coffee?” he asks while Nico takes the candles out of their packaging and starts scanning the room for places to put them. He makes a noncommittal noise that Taylor decides to take as a yes, because sometimes Nico seems to run on nothing but coffee and willpower. Taylor still remembers how exhausted he was in his rookie season, he gets it.

He comes back from the kitchen a little later with two big mugs of coffee in hand, and finds Nico standing on a chair so he can place snowflake stickers at the very top of the ceiling-high window. He has to stand on his toes and lean sideways a bit to reach where he’s apparently set on sticking the largest snowflake. He nearly loses his balance and only catches himself in time to hop off the chair and land on the floor instead of falling over.

“Need some help, maybe?” Taylor asks. He wasn’t planning on doing anything here, but he can’t have Nico breaking any bones on his watch, and this is clearly turning into a hazardous activity.

“Sure,” Nico says and eyes the mugs in Taylor’s hands approvingly. Taylor offers one up to him, but Nico grabs something from the bag and hides it behind his back as he walks up to Taylor.

“I’m glad to see you getting on board with this,” Nico says. He’s grinning, and Taylor already knows he’s not gonna like what comes next. Sure enough, Nico reveals a santa hat with a goddamn bell at the tip and places it on Taylor’s head. Taylor can’t even do anything because he’s got his hands full and Nico fusses with the hat for a moment, making sure no hair is sticking out anywhere.

“You’re not supposed to be decorating _me_ ,” Taylor says in protest.

“I know, but this is perfect,” Nico says, extremely pleased with himself. “Now you can help.” He takes one of the coffee mugs.

Taylor would get rid of the hat, but his skin is tingling where Nico touched it, and Taylor— he should want that feeling to go away.

It makes something warm unfurl in his stomach, though, so he takes the bag of pine cones Nico is holding out for him — with clear instructions to place them in the fruit bowl on the dinner table — and leaves the hat where it is.

 

#

 

Two hours later, Nico declares that they’re done with the apartment. Taylor has to admit that it looks nice. None of the stuff Nico picked out is too overbearing or tacky and since Taylor doesn’t actually hate Christmas or decorating, he can appreciate the result. He wouldn’t have done it just for himself, but putting everything up with someone was fun. That’s the reason he and Jordan got that stupid tree in the first place.

“Now we just have to get you a tree,” Nico says. “You’re driving, we’re gonna need the big car.”

Taylor doesn’t question that until Nico enters an address into the GPS and it directs Taylor to drive them some place over an hour outside of the city.

“Where exactly are we going?” he asks, glancing at Nico in the passenger seat. Taylor was expecting them to just go to a shop somewhere close.

“Uh, this tree farm I found online,” Nico says with a shrug.

“Tree farm? As in, we’re going to cut down a tree ourselves?”

“Yes, obviously. It’s the only way to make sure your tree looks good!”

“I thought we were getting an artificial tree,” Taylor says. He’s not sure he’s ever had a real tree. Maybe his parents did when he was really young, so young that he doesn’t remember it now.

Nico looks like Taylor has said something offensive. “You can’t get a fake tree, that’s terrible!”

“Don’t real trees make a mess?”

“Oh, because you’re the person cleaning your apartment?” Nico asks, and he has a point, because Taylor doesn’t and he has no plans of starting to do it, either. “You’re getting a real tree. It looks so much better, and the smell is great, you’ll see.”

“Does your family always get a real tree?” Taylor asks.

“Yes! We always go to a place in the woods where you’re allowed to cut them. Everyone comes and it’s so much fun. Especially when there’s snow already, those are the best days to go.”

Taylor thinks that must be nice, and the way Nico’s eyes light up is all the confirmation he needs.

Nico starts fiddling with the car’s music system and, after a few failed attempts, manages to connect his phone to it. Taylor lets him, because he’s already spent his morning wearing a Santa hat and he’s getting a real Christmas tree now, so he might as well.

“I made you a playlist,” Nico says before he hits play. _Last Christmas_ starts playing and Taylor has to laugh because that’s always been his favorite holiday song, even if he’d never admit to it out loud. That doesn’t stop him from singing along. Nico seems a little shocked by it for a few seconds before he joins in, very off key, and Taylor doesn’t even chirp him for it because he’s having too much fun.

 

#

 

It turns out that cutting down your own tree is a bit of a science. They rent a saw first, and then they’re given a map that marks the area where they’re allowed to find a tree. They also get a few ribbons to tie around trees so they’ll find the ones they liked again.

Taylor thinks it probably shouldn’t be that complicated but as soon as they start their hunt, it becomes clear that Nico has very specific ideas of what this tree should look like.

“It’s very important that the branches aren’t too far apart,” Nico explains when Taylor points to a tree that has a nice height, and, “always make sure to check it from all angles because sometimes one side looks weird.”

After a few more failed suggestions, Taylor decides that Nico is going to get to pick the tree, and just follows him on a winding path through a field of trees that all start to look the same to him.

Nico marks a few trees with their ribbons, but he doesn’t seem to like any of them.

“Maybe all the perfect ones are gone already?” Nico wonders as he turns where he’s standing to look at all the evergreen around them.

Taylor’s cold, he wants to be home before it gets dark, and he thinks he’s figured out what the problem is. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, Nico. If you wanted the perfect tree, we really should’ve gotten a fake one.”

Nico frowns at that. “But I want to find you a great tree,” he says.

Taylor smiles. “I liked that last one we saw, the big one,” he says and slings his arm around Nico’s shoulders, easy, as he walks them back to where they came from.

“Are you sure? We can keep looking!” Nico says, but Taylor shakes his head.

“Nope, I want that tree now,” he says, and he could’ve sworn that it was around here somewhere, but he can’t see any of their red ribbons.

“It’s this way,” Nico says, and he’s not frowning anymore when he leads Taylor towards the tree they’re looking for.

“You sure this is the one?” Nico asks, and Taylor holds up the saw he’s been carrying around for the last hour.

“Let’s fell this beauty,” he says, grinning.

It takes them a while, and Taylor decides it’s definitely the saw that’s to blame for it, but eventually they manage to get it down. Carrying the tree back to the entrance is much easier, and they have it wrapped up in netting before they load it into the car and make their way back to Jersey.

 

#

 

They set up the tree is the corner next to the couch and Taylor makes them dinner while Nico starts putting lights and ornaments on the branches.

Taylor finds himself humming Christmas songs while he chops their veggies, and when he walks back into the living room to ask Nico what he wants to drink, he can’t help but stop and watch Nico at work, focused on making sure everything goes in the right place. He’s wearing the Santa hat now, and Taylor wishes he had his phone to snap a picture.

Taylor’s heart feels very full all of a sudden and he clears his throat, like that is going to help. It doesn’t, but it gets him Nico’s attention.

“We can eat in a bit,” Taylor says and retreats into the kitchen without asking what he meant to ask, because he needs to take a few deep breaths to get a grip, and remind himself that this cannot happen.

He keeps reminding himself of that through dinner, while Nico tells him about all the plans he’s made with his family on the two off-days they get for Christmas, and while they finish decorating the tree after, and especially when Nico gives him a hug before he leaves.

Taylor gets himself a beer when Nico’s gone and sits in his armchair in the middle of his now extremely Christmassy living room to think about how screwed he is.

He’s had crushes on teammates before, but not like this. He’s always been able to shake it off and move on to being bros. Jordan was the last time it happened, and Taylor had hoped he was done doing this to himself.

He obviously isn’t, though, and he’s feeling a little resentful, so he takes a picture of the tree and sends it to Jordan on snapchat, with the caption _i’ve got a real tree now, loser._

He also sends Nico one, with a quick _thank you_ and every Christmas themed emoji he can find.

Nico sends back the devil emoji and the Christmas tree emoji. And, a few seconds later, a red heart.

Taylor goes to get another beer.

 

#

 

Jordan drops by a week later, unannounced, and declares, “I need to see this real tree,” as he pushes past Taylor and makes himself right at home. He never stopped treating Taylor’s place like his own, not when he moved out of their apartment in Edmonton and not when Taylor got this place, either.

“Will you ever learn to call?” Taylor asks, annoyed, because he is in the middle of something that is not going well, and Jordan will be chirping him about this for the rest of their lives.

“Probably not,” Jordan says and turns around from where he’s hung up his coat.

He does a double take, finally noticing Taylor’s outfit. “Why the fuck are you wearing an _apron_?”

“It’s— no reason!” Taylor says, which is an extremely unhelpful answer. Jordan is already on his way to the kitchen, and Taylor can’t do anything but follow him. “I thought you wanted to see the tree!” he tries, but it gets him nowhere.

He already regrets his decision to do something nice for Nico as a thank you for all his help with the decorations. It’s a stupid idea anyway, and Taylor wishes his heart wasn’t such a goddamn traitor, but unfortunately it has decided that he wants to make Nico happy.

He comes into the kitchen and watches as Jordan takes in the disaster zone it has become over the last two hours. There are bowls and measuring cups spread out over every surface in the room, all of them used. A tray of badly burnt cookies sits on the counter, a second tray of dark brown cookies next to it, and there’s flour everywhere.

“Holy shit,” Jordan says.

“I can’t bake,” Taylor says, miserably. He’s an okay cook and assumed that the skills were transferable. It’s possible that this recipe is just too advanced, but the bottom line is, he’s failing badly.

“I can see that, but why are you even trying to?” Jordan picks up the the piece of paper with the handwritten recipe on it from where Taylor placed it on the kitchen island. “What is that, German?” he asks, pointing at the recipe title.

“Probably,” Taylor says. The rest of the recipe is in English, but it’s not like that has made it easier to bake the cookies.

“Why are you baking German Christmas cookies?”

“They’re Swiss, and maybe I just wanted some Swiss cookies, okay?” Taylor says, but it sounds too defensive and he’s having a bad-at-lying day apparently, so maybe he should stop trying. Jordan just raises an eyebrow at him, and Taylor sighs.

“They’re for Hisch,” he says and Jordan nods like that makes much more sense.

“Is he your secret santa?” he asks and Taylor nods, even though that’s not true; he really needs to figure out what to get Miles soon, what with Christmas only a couple of days away.

Jordan takes his phone out, presses a button and holds it up to his ear.

“Who’re you calling?”

“Lauren, unless you know someone better to fix this mess?”

Taylor doesn’t, so he gives Jordan a thumbs-up and goes to clean the kitchen a bit so Lauren will at least have some clear counter space to work on.

He forgets to throw out the burnt cookies though. Lauren takes one look at them when she arrives an hour later and says, “Oh, honey,” before she gets to work, banning both of them from the kitchen for the time being, saying they can come back later to use the cookie cutters under her supervision.

Taylor collapses on the couch in the living room like he’s been double-shifted for a whole game. He knows it’s a little theatrical, but baking is truly terrible and he does not understand why people do it.

“That’s a great tree, dude,” Jordan says when he joins Taylor. “Much better than that fake thing we got back in Edmonton.” Sometimes Taylor wonders how Jordan does it, how he manages to talk about their old team, their old home, without sounding bitter.

“I loved our tree, it didn’t shed needles every fucking second,” Taylor says, but he’s also loved hanging out in his living room a lot more recently. The tree and all the decorations make it warm and welcoming, much more like a home than Taylor considered it to be one, before.

Jordan chuckles. “It’s a good tree. Where’d you get this one?”

“Uh. Hisch took me to this tree farm to get it.”

“Hisch, huh?” Jordan gives him a look, but Taylor keeps his eyes fixed on the lights of the tree until they become blurry, just sparkly dots dancing in between colorful bits and pieces.

“Yeah,” Taylor says, quietly. He lets out a long breath and finally meets Jordan’s eyes.

Jordan knows him too well, knows what he’s asking and what Taylor means. His face is all sympathetic and he says, “Oh, buddy.”

Taylor hates it and he doesn’t reply, but Jordan never lets him get away easily. He likes to say that someone needs to ask Taylor the hard questions.

“What are you gonna do?”

It wrings a quick laugh out of Taylor’s chest. It sounds more like a bark and there’s no humor in it.

“I’m burning cookies,” Taylor says, and all it gets him is a light shove and a stern look that makes Taylor roll his eyes. “I’m not gonna do anything. He’s not interested,” he adds.

“And if he were?” Jordan bumps his knee against Taylor’s.

Taylor doesn’t have an answer for Jordan, because he doesn’t think about this. He can’t. It would be so stupid to get his hopes up, stupid to let this crush, or whatever it is, grow any bigger.

“He’s not,” Taylor says, tries to make it sound finite enough that Jordan will drop the topic.

Jordan opens his mouth, probably to ask more questions that will make Taylor’s stomach feel slightly queasy, but Lauren has impeccable timing and calls them back into the kitchen.

Taylor’s not under any illusions; he knows Jordan tells her everything, but at least has the decency to pretend that Taylor’s secrets are his own. It gets Taylor out of this conversation at least, and he makes sure he and Jordan don’t get any more one-on-one time before Jordan and Lauren need to leave.

 _cookies mean you care,_  Jordan texts him later and Taylor doesn’t throw the good batch out, but it’s a near thing.

 

#

 

The team exchanges secret santa gifts in the locker room after their last game before the holidays, and Butchy gets Taylor a scarf that’s so nice Taylor starts doubting his own fashion sense. Woody seems to be happy enough with the last-minute bottle of whiskey Taylor got him based on Henny’s advice.

Nico is having far too much fun with the dancing Santa toy he received; it plays terrible versions of a variety of Christmas pop songs, and Taylor wants to know what Steven was thinking when he bought it. His mood is good enough that it’s not grating on his nerves too much, but he’s pretty sure he’ll never want to see it again after tonight.

Taylor waits until Nico has gone off to shower before he slips a tin box filled with the cookies into his bag. There’s a note inside that just says Merry Christmas, and a part of him hopes Nico won’t ever find the gift, even though his chances there are pretty slim.

He’s already done changing and not really in the mood for more company, so he says goodbye to the guys in the room and gets out to his car before anyone can talk him into drinks or dinner.

He listens to Nico’s Spotify playlist on the drive home and finds a sappy Christmas movie on Netflix to watch while he eats. The plot seems awfully familiar, but Taylor can’t figure out if that’s because he’s seen it somewhere before or just because all of these movies are the same; he decides it hardly matters as he watches the heroine fall in love with a guy she doesn’t know is the prince of some made-up country.

It’s not particularly interesting and Taylor feels exhaustion settle into his bones and his eyes grow heavy. He should drag himself off to his actual bed, but his couch is really comfortable and he doesn’t want to move. He drifts off to sleep thinking that it’s kind of nice to know these two are going to end up together, happily ever after and all that shit.

 

#

 

Taylor jerks awake because his phone alarm goes off, or that’s what he thinks it is until he finds his phone on the floor next to the couch. He stares at it, bleary-eyed and dead tired, trying to figure out why there’s no alarm for him to switch off.

His doorbell rings, and Taylor realizes that’s what woke him. It’s 1:13 am and Taylor thinks there’s a law against ringing people’s doorbells this late, or there should be, at least.

Then he remembers that it could be an emergency, and he rubs a hand over his face and gets up, tries to shake himself awake enough to function.

He has the good sense to look through the spy hole, because his tired brain supplies that it could be someone trying to rob or murder him; it’s just Nico, though, and Taylor figures he’s not going to do either of those things.

“Nico? Is everything okay?” Taylor asks once he’s opened the door. His brain isn’t running fast enough yet to come up with possible reasons that could have brought Nico here. His parents have been in town for a couple of days already so it doesn’t make much sense for him to come to Taylor if anything’s wrong.

“Can I come in?” Nico asks, only it doesn’t sound like much of a question, and he’s inside as soon as Taylor gives him enough space to get through the door.

“What’s going on?” Taylor asks with a frown. Nico seems okay, a little flustered maybe, but not like anything bad has happened.

“Where’d you get these?” Nico says, and Taylor only notices then that he’s holding the tin Taylor hid in his bag earlier.

“Oh,” Taylor says, and he knows he’s blushing, feels his face grow warm with it. “Uh, I might have asked your mom. You know, what kind of cookies you like.” He waves his hand to convey that this is no big deal, and shrugs. “She gave me the recipe.”

Nico looks at him, a slightly lopsided smile on his lips. “You made me these?”

Taylor swallows and nods. He’s a little more awake now, awake enough to realize Nico is happy — the kind of happy he gets when he talks about the things he loves; awake enough to see Nico place the tin on the hallway dresser, carefully and like it’s something precious, before he comes close, into Taylor’s space.

“You like me,” Nico says and this time it’s definitely not a question.

“That obvious?” Taylor asks, and it comes out low and quiet. He watches Nico’s eyes flick to his lips for a heartbeat, feels Nico’s hand settle warm and solid on his hip.

“Pretty obvious now,” Nico says. He leans in and Taylor knows in theory that they’re pretty much the same height, but he never knew how easy it is to kiss someone his height. All he has to do is sway forward a little and Nico’s lips find his. They’re cold and soft, and they make Taylor’s heart beat so fast.

Nico slides his hands from Taylor’s hips around to his back to pull him closer. Taylor goes willingly and rests his own hands on Nico’s shoulder, one thumb brushing against the side of Nico’s neck.

Then Nico parts his lips and Taylor follows suit and when Taylor pulls away a little later, breathless and content, Nico’s lips are warm and very red. He’s smiling and leans forward for another quick kiss.

“I like you, too,” Nico mumbles and Taylor can’t help but chuckle at that.

“Yeah, Nics, I figured,” he says fondly. Nico smiles even more and ducks his head.

Taylor wants to kiss him again. There’s a chance he is dreaming all this; he’s fairly sure that he isn’t, but he still wants someone to pinch him, just to make sure.

He’s not going to ask Nico to do it and opts for kissing him again instead, trying to take it slow but failing on account of Nico’s enthusiasm. Nico is licking into his mouth and nibbling at his lower lip, and Taylor loves how it makes his skin tingle.

“Wanted this for so long,” Nico says. “Your lips are like, insanely hot.”

It’s nothing Taylor hasn’t heard before, but it’s so good coming from Nico that he doesn’t mind it one bit. He waggles his eyebrows and sucks his lip into his mouth only to release it again slowly.

“Not fair, oh my god,” Nico says, and Taylor laughs until Nico shuts him up with his lips once more. Taylor does keep it from turning too filthy though, so he slows down and keeps his hands from wandering. This is new and they’ve got time; there’s no reason to rush anything.

“I wanted to get you a gift, but I wasn’t sure that I should,” Nico says when they part again and Taylor shakes his head, because Nico has no idea.

“You already did,” he says and takes Nico’s hand to pull him into the living room that’s bathed in the soft, low light shining from the tree. “You gave me all this.”

Nico squeezes his hand. “Guess we’re both pretty good at gifts,” he says. He leans into Taylor’s side a bit and looks at the tree, tangles his fingers with Taylor’s instead of letting go of his hand.

“Yeah. I think we’re also both very good at this,” Taylor says and kisses Nico again, until he’s sure he’s not dreaming; until Nico is making soft little noises and his hair is a mess from Taylor’s hands; until Nico has to go back to his place and whispers, “Merry Christmas,” against Taylor’s lips.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you are a Devils fan, or you just feel like yelling with me over this super duper rare pair, find me on tumblr <3


End file.
